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“You know, the reason the Children’s Hospital
is on our charity list is because of Abby right?” I pulled my gaze
away from Jason and Stacey and looked over to Jacob, who had just
thrown back the last of his drink.

“No, I didn’t know that. What’s wrong with
Abby?”

“She has an extensive form of anemia, and
required a blood transfusion. That’s why Jason and Stacey picked up
and rushed out here.” The thoughts of Jason disappearing for that
week skid right back into my head. He wouldn’t tell me why he left,
or what he came down to Texas for, and I wasn’t sure why he felt he
couldn’t tell me that something was wrong with his niece. “They
came down together,” Jacob continued, and I could feel the rage
starting to build in my chest. “You do know they were once engaged
right?” He asked.

“Yes, I do. Why are you going into all of
this right now?” I looked around for Chelsea, but in the midst of
the wild dancing taking place on the dance floor, I couldn’t find
her anywhere.

“Because, you seem like a nice, wholesome
girl Cara, and I know my brother. I don’t want to see him hurt you
-- which he probably already has – you just don’t know it yet.” I
whipped my head around to face him, and he continued, “He can’t get
Stacey out of his system. They have their breaks, and he moves on
to someone else, but sooner or later, he makes his way back to her.
I thought, purely based on the amount of time they spent together
down here, that you two were finished.”

I placed my hand to my chest and took a deep
breath, trying in vain to stop the room from spinning. A million
and one thoughts swirled through my head, and I remembered Stacey
bragging about spending time with Jason when they were down in
Heath together. I reached for my glass of water that was damn near
empty, and then threw one hand over my stomach and the other over
my mouth.

“Are you okay?” Jacob asked, sliding another
glass of water in front of me.

“No, I think I’m going to be sick,” I managed
to say, and before I could think of anything else to say to Jacob,
I jumped up and tore out of the tent.

The thick Texas air did nothing to quell the
rising sickness tearing through my stomach. In fact, the longer I
stood in one spot, the more I felt myself gasping for air. I ran to
the guesthouse and went straight for the kitchen sink, and splashed
water on my face. That didn’t seem to do the trick, so I put my
mouth under the faucet and let the water rush in.

I heard the back door open, and Jason came
running into the kitchen with panic in his eyes. Chelsea and Hunter
followed closely behind him, and Jason ran over to me, helping me
to a seat at the table. “What’s wrong? I saw you run out of the
tent, but I had no idea what had happened? Are you sick?” His voice
was trembling, and anxious. “Talk to me Cara.”

The door flung open again, and in walked
Jacob, Heather, and Stacey. Jason’s eyes darted to his brother, and
without hesitation, he leaped over to him, grabbing him by the
collar of his shirt. “What the fuck did you do to her?” Jacob
calmly threw his hands up and shook his head.

“I told her all of the bullshit that you
won’t tell her.” Chelsea’s eyes narrowed as she moved closer to me,
never taking her gaze off of Jason.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Jason
lowly grumbled, his tan skin taking on a shade of red.

“Tell Cara why you came to Heath… in fact,
why don’t you start at the beginning and tell her everything about
you. If she doesn’t know any of this, I’m sure she doesn’t know
shit else about you Jason.”

Jason’s body temperature felt like it filled
the room. I was once again short of breath and sweating profusely.
I watched Jason ball up his fists, and move towards his brother,
but Hunter stepped in the way to keep him from physically accosting
Jacob. “Cara you want to know why Jason hates me so much? Why he
hates coming home to Heath?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Jason yelled, and this
time the veins in his neck looked as if they were about to burst
right through his skin.

“Jason and I were rotten little shit head
teenagers. We grew up with privilege and we used it to our
advantage. Girls wanted us, and we only wanted one thing from them,
which wasn’t too hard to get, considering who our father is.” I
watched him move about the room, and he kept talking. “We’d have
fuck parties, and we'd sleep with girls at the same time, then kick
them out on their asses in the morning. But you know what, all of
that changed when we met Heather. We had a fuck party with her, but
I fell for her, and apparently Jason did too.”

Jason charged Jacob and a scuffle ensued.
They were rolling over one another, throwing wild punches – some
connecting, but most not. Heather screamed for them to stop, and
after Jacob connected with Jason’s mouth, Hunter grabbed Jacob and
threw him off of Jason.

When both of the guys regained themselves,
Jacob picked up right where he had left off. “When she chose me
over him, he flipped the fuck out. He started doing shit to
embarrass the family, he tried hurting me in any way that he could,
and I figured, why not introduce him to Heather’s little sister,
Stacey.”

Jason stared at Jacob, panting -- ready to go
after him a second time, but Hunter held him back.

“That lasted for a while, until I made
Heather my wife, which sent him into a tailspin. He was destroying
the business with his antics, and my dad told him he had to go. So,
he chose California. He has a nice home, nice cars, and he is away
from us and no longer wreaking havoc on our lives.”

I looked around the room, stopping on Heather
who had head in her hands, more than likely mortified by the
shameless display that her husband was putting on.

Jason pushed through Hunter, and was back to
pushing his brother. Jacob didn’t back down, and after being shoved
into the wall, they were back to holds and punches. Jason had Jacob
bent over and firmly held the back of his neck. He squeezed his
neck while Jacob threw small but effective punches into Jason’s
thigh and groin area, causing him to let go.

“You should just stop Jake, seriously,”
Heather yelled, only to be rebuffed by her husband.

Jacob rubbed the back of his neck, obviously
sore from the grip that Jason previously held. I rushed over to
Jason and rubbed his back, throwing death stares at Jacob.

He wouldn’t let up, and continued on with his
story, through grimaces and short breaths. “I had to go away for
business trainings in New York for two months, and while I was
gone, your dear sweet boyfriend here decided he just needed to
stick his cock in my wife once again. When I got back, Heather was
pregnant, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two
together.”

Heather yelled for Jacob to shut up, and as
she stormed out of the room, Jacob caught her wrist and held her
firmly in place.

“You piece of shit,” Jason growled at his
brother, “is this all you’ve got? Old shit?”

“Oh, I’m not done yet, it gets better Cara,”
Jacob replied, smiling at me. I knew I should leave the room, but
morbid curiosity pinned me to my spot.

Jason grabbed my hand and tried to pull me
out of the room, but I stood firm, curious about what else would
come out.

“My parents were gutted. This would
definitely not be good for business, or their social circle, so
while Jason signed his name to Abby’s birth certificate behind
closed doors, we carried on that the sweet little muffin was
mine.”

“Oh my fucking God, is this right Jason?” I
asked, almost in a whisper because I couldn’t gather up the energy
to give any more.

“All except for the fact that Heather
actually chose me, and he blackmailed her into going to him.” I saw
tears roll down his now red cheeks, and I felt a stab of deceit
course through my body. Heather nodded her head, so I knew that
part was true.

“I fuckin’ hate you,” Jason yelled with the
veins in his neck bulging, his skin almost completely red. He
lunged at Jacob, and threw a punch, but missed and hit Hunter
instead, since he jumped in to stop Jason from hitting his brother
again.

“Has Jason said how much he adores your curly
hair?”

I reached up and touched my hair, remembering
how often Jason ran his fingers through it.

“There’s a reason for that. Heather once had
curly hair just like yours. I don’t allow that anymore because my
asshole brother is infatuated with it.”

I looked at him accusingly, but he never
looked at me, just kept his gaze on his brother.

Did he ever get pissy about you drinking too
much? Well, that’s because he swears that the night I so-called
blackmailed Heather, she was heavily intoxicated and made a drunken
decision.”

My stomach rose to my throat and I threw my
hand over my mouth, hoping to keep my dinner from expelling all
over the kitchen floor. Jason turned to me, and wrapped his arms
around my hunched over body, but I pushed him off; disgusted with
what I was hearing.

“Stacey was his replacement. He wanted
Heather but knew he couldn’t have her, so he moved on with Stacey
and actually fell in love. When he moved to San Diego, she picked
up and went after him and they got engaged. I don’t know what
happened out there that led him to you, but I do know my parents
were confused and thrilled to see them so close again down here in
Heath during Abby’s time in the hospital.”

Hunter walked over to Jacob and tried to get
him to leave the topic alone, but Jacob got aggressive and pushed
him away.

”That sweet baby needed a blood transfusion,
and my Dad decided once and for all that we were going to have a
test to put all of this to rest. Luckily for me, the test proved
that my sweet little girl is in fact, my little girl. We spent the
next couple of days with Dad’s lawyers, getting his name off my
daughter’s shit, and changing it to her rightful daddy.”

Heather stood and pulled on Jacob’s shoulder,
yelling, “Enough!” He laughed, and kept going.

“He didn’t call or text you while he was gone
because he was in mourning. Mourning the fact that the one tangible
thing he had to Heather was gone. He got drunk often, and Stacey
was there to soothe his ache in more ways than one.”

“You’re a God damn liar,” Jason threw back at
Jacob.

“Oh really? None of that happened lil
brother?” Jacob asked, full of sarcasm.

I glanced over at Stacey, who smiled a sly
little smile, but focused her attention on Jacob.

“Tell em’ Stacey,” Jacob prodded.

“This is a shitty way to do this, but she
needed to know Jason. And you need to know that I’m pregnant.”

My eyes darted towards her and then back down
to Jason. I stood up and rushed over to the sink and threw up all
of the substance that I had been working so hard to keep down.
Chelsea rushed to me, and turned on the water, then turned around
and shouted, “You are all a bunch of sick bastards.”

Jason walked over to me -- eyes wide and
desperate, and stood behind me, waiting for me to turn around. When
I did, I couldn’t bear to look at him, so I turned and threw my
head into Chelsea’s chest.

“This is a bunch of bull shit Cara. I swear
to you.” Jason frantically yelled. “I haven’t been with this skank
in over a year.”

“You can’t deny it Jason, you’ve already
admitted to it.” I managed to make out, through the uncontrollable
sobs leaving my body.

“All of the previous shit, yes, I was a dirty
fuck, but none of this recent stuff is true. I saw Stacey a couple
of times while we were in Heath, but it was always in public. I
never fucking slept with her while I was with you, NEVER!”

“I can’t believe you Jason. You never told me
why you rushed down here, and what you were doing. What the hell do
you want me to believe? You left your fate in someone else’s hands,
and they beat you to the truth before you could tell a lie.

“I never lied to you.”

“Omission is still a lie,” I bit back.

He stormed over to Stacey and shouted in her
face, “Tell the fucking truth. You’re a two cent whore. As many
guys you’ve slept with, there is no way I would stick my shit back
in you.”

She didn’t budge, and simply pulled a
positive pregnancy test from the clutch she was carrying. My mind
quickly flittered back to the tent where she was playing with her
clutch in my view.

Every emotion I felt came boiling out of me,
wrath being the most prevalent. Jason moved in front of me and I
pushed him away sending him stumbling into the counter. “Don’t
touch me. You are a filthy man whore and I can’t believe I ever
fell for your shit.”

He looked defeated, but calmly stated, “I
love you Cara. I would never cheat on you.”

Tears welled up in my eyes and I made no
attempt to stop them from roaring down my face. “No you don’t, you
have no idea what love is.” I moved around him, with Chelsea and
Hunter following close behind. I stopped in front of Jacob, just as
angry with him.

“Why are you doing this? What have I done to
you?” I asked, fighting back another explosive round of tears.

“Nothing." He said, with a snide grin on his
face. "I would’ve done it no matter who the girl was because Jason
deserves it.”

His look of superiority sent me over the
edge, and I slapped him, with all the force that could be channeled
within me. My hand stung, and Jacob had a red mark on his left
cheek, but the release felt good. He rubbed his cheek, and then
used his chest to bump against me, which sent Jason tackling him to
the floor and clobbering him with punches to the face. I had seen
enough and started walking out of the room when Jason stopped and
pulled himself off Jacob, who was curled on the ground in the fetal
position, blood coming from his nose.

“Cara… Cara don’t leave.” He called out,
running after me. He caught up to me and took my chin in his tense,
blood speckled hands. “You’ve got to believe me. I’m so sorry for
my past, I can’t change that, but none of that recent shit is true,
none of it.”